The Needs of the One
by lahmrh
Summary: McCoy is willing to accept that Spock's resurrection has led to some changes, it's Kirk's reaction to those changes that worries him. (AU where Spock comes back wrong after Genesis.)


Author's Note: Written for the Zombie Fest (zombi-fic-ation) prompt: _Star Trek (Classic Trek) - Spock, any - The Spock that came back from the Genesis Planet is not quite the same as the original - A Vulcan that craves fresh meat, the fresher the better._

I'm choosing not to put specific warnings on this, so read at your own risk. Also, while I intended it to be gen it's honestly kind of ambiguous, so if you want to read it as K/S go right ahead.

**The Needs of the One**

It isn't obvious at first. Spock spends most of his time with the healers, or otherwise locked up in the temple, where humans are not allowed. McCoy and the others only get to see him for short periods, one or two at a time, for fear of overwhelming him.

By mutual understanding, the rest of them let Kirk take the lion's share of the visiting time, and he does so without a second thought. It doesn't seem to matter to him that Spock barely remembers his own name, or that the healers stare the whole time as if trying to make sure Spock's visitors don't infect him with their human-ness.

It isn't that McCoy doesn't want to visit Spock, but the whole situation makes him a little uncomfortable. Kirk, on the other hand, seems oblivious. He visits Spock as often as they'll let him, and stays until the healers kick him out. Every sign of progress, no matter how small, is cause for celebration. After the third time Kirk gushes about Spock touching his arm, McCoy starts to wonder if there isn't a certain amount of misplaced grief involved in the reaction. The two visits he accompanies Kirk on seem to involve Kirk talking to Spock about anything and everything, and Spock giving every impression of not listening to a word of it.

He's concerned that Kirk will eventually burn himself out, especially when it becomes clear that amnesia is not Spock's only problem. Kirk mentions in passing that Spock isn't eating much, and after some subtle probing McCoy discovers that Spock apparently doesn't eat _at all_ unless ordered to, as though he has no sense of hunger.

Further questioning of the healers reveals that they are well aware of the problem, and have already tried many different kinds of foods in the hope of whetting Spock's appetite, but so far nothing has worked. Their next step is for one of the healers to meld with Spock to see if she can find out what might be causing him to avoid food.

McCoy isn't there at the time, but from all accounts the meld caused the healer to go chalk white and nearly faint. The long and the short of it is that Spock _is_ feeling hunger. An incredibly strong hunger, in fact. The problem is that what he is hungry for is meat. Animal flesh. The one thing that Vulcans avoid above all else.

This revelation leads to a long and involved discussion among the healers about whether it would be better to give Spock what he craves in spite of the cultural taboo, or to keep feeding him normal food in the hope he will develop a taste for it and so be more easily assimilated back into Vulcan society.

Kirk, however – with a little help from Amanda – takes matters into his own hands. If meat is what Spock needs, then he's going to get it. Kirk pulls out all the stops, and the next time he visits Spock, is bearing the gift of a perfectly cooked steak.

When Kirk describes it afterwards, he focuses on how it was clearly the right thing to do; how Spock's eyes lit up when he saw the steak, the way he devoured it as though he'd never seen food before. It doesn't seem to occur to him to wonder why Spock, a being from a strictly vegetarian species, would suddenly start craving meat. McCoy is unwilling to burst Kirk's bubble, but he has to admit that _he_ wonders.

The healers still seem reluctant to give Spock meat, but they don't object to Kirk doing so, and Kirk seems to blossom under the thought that he's doing something active to help Spock. He experiments with different types of meat, different ways of cooking, and McCoy is subject to a running commentary on the results.

It turns out Spock likes his meat rare. _Very_ rare. Kirk speaks with a laugh of a time when he tried to make hamburgers and Spock ate half of the raw mince before he even managed to cook it. McCoy ventures a question about whether that seems at all _strange_ to him and gets nothing but a blank stare.

A discreet discussion with Amanda reveals that she has the same concerns about Spock – and Kirk. "It's not that I'm not glad Spock has someone who cares this much about him," she tells McCoy, "but this is verging on obsession." She bites her lip and adds, "Jim told me that Spock melded with him a few days ago."

McCoy catches on to her meaning almost immediately. "You think something happened during the meld."

"I don't know. But I'm worried."

When Kirk is caught trying to bring Spock _live_ food, McCoy puts his foot down. "Doesn't something about this seem wrong to you?" he asks, pacing back and forth in front of Kirk, who is still clutching a cage filled with half a dozen c'hik – the Vulcan equivalent of mice.

"Spock needs them," is all Kirk will say. "He's hungry."

"And if he needed to eat _people_, would you set that up too?" McCoy throws up his hands in frustration. "Listen, Jim. I don't know what, but something's wrong with Spock. I don't think you should be enabling him like this."

He expects fireworks, but Kirk's reaction is merely to shove the cage into his hands and growl, "Fine," before storming off. McCoy takes it as a win. He should have known it wouldn't be that easy.

Two days later, he gets a call from Sarek in the middle of the night. Spock has gone missing. A quick check reveals that Kirk is gone too, and it doesn't take a genius to assume that wherever they are, they're together.

It takes several hours to locate them, in a cave at the base of the mountains. Spock is huddled in a corner, covered in blood and dirt, feasting on the remains of some large animal. Kirk is lying next to him, unconscious.

Spock attacks them when they try to get to Kirk, but one shot from a phaser takes care of that. Kirk himself seems relatively unscathed, apart from a vivid wound on his shoulder. McCoy moves closer to examine it, and bile rises in his throat as he realises it's a bite mark; one that is entirely the wrong shape to have been made by an animal. He glances over at Spock, still stunned from the phaser shot, and wonders how things could have come to this.

It isn't over, though. Kirk opens his eyes as they move him onto a stretcher to take him to the hospital, and his first words are, "Where's Spock?"

"Locked up, I should hope," McCoy snaps.

Kirk shakes his head firmly. "No. No. I have to go to him. He needs me."

McCoy resists the urge to shake him. "For God's sake, look what he did to you!"

"Because he needed me." The level of… peace in Kirk's voice is terrifying. Kirk smiles suddenly, and adds, "He needed me so much that he made me like him."

"What do you mean, 'like him'?" McCoy demands, a chill running down his spine in spite of the heat.

Kirk blinks innocently at him. "Did you know that Earth and Vulcan have the same stories about people who come back from the dead?" he asks. "Turns out Genesis had effects we didn't anticipate."

He lunges suddenly, still smiling, and it all comes together in McCoy's mind a second before Kirk's teeth sink into his hand.


End file.
